HOW TO REKINDLE AN OLD FLAME

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HOW TO REKINDLE AN OLD FLAME
PSALM 85: 1 - 7
(PAGE 873 COME ALIVE BIBLE)
JESUS CHRIST loved you and gave Himself for you. If you are a
Christian there was a time when you fell in love with Him. As an
object of your love He had first place in life.
Tragically, diversions and distractions often cause the love of
a believer to diminish. It was for this reason that in the book
of the Revelation the church at Ephesus is warned: "...you have
left your first love," and challenged, "Remember therefore from
where you have fallen; repent and do the first works..."
(Revelation 2: 4,5).
Does love for Jesus burn on the hearth of your heart as an open
fire or is He merely an old flame? In church life and lives of
individual believers rekindling an old flame is called revival.
Charles Finney was the flaming evangelist used of our Lord to
ignite the fires of one of America's three great spiritual
awakenings. Let me remind you of his definition of revival.
It is "...nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.
Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a
deep repentance, a breaking down of the heart, a getting down in
the dust before God, with deep humility, and forsaking sin."
Three things essential to rekindling an old flame stand out in
that statement. Revival requires 1) repentance, 2) humility, and
3) forsaking of sin.
All three are contrary to our sinful nature.
REPENTANCE requires admitting we were wrong. Our strong
self-will resist admitting it when we are ...

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